With an engineer’s precision, Jo Ann Soderquist Kramer drew a schematic of good leadership for the students, faculty and staff assembled for Sweet Briar College’s Founders’ Day Convocation.


Jo Ann Soderquist KramerThe 1964 graduate and 2005 Distinguished Alumna Award recipient was the keynote speaker at the opening ceremony of SBC’s annual heritage celebration on Sept. 23. Kramer listed 19 specific attributes of good managers in her address, “A Lady Engineer’s Perspective on Leadership.” As director of naval defense system programs for General Dynamics Corp. in Burlington, Vt., she spoke from experience.

Before she could lead, though, she had to transition from individual performer, Kramer said. “One of the most difficult things for me to accept was that being a leader meant I must be willing to accept the outcome and output of those I led as if they were my own.”

Kramer graduated cum laude with an A.B. in physics from Sweet Briar before becoming the first woman to earn a master’s in aerospace engineering from the University of Virginia School of Engineering. She began her career as an aerospace engineer with Martin Marietta Corp. in Orlando, Fla., then with Lockheed Martin Corp. in Burlington, Vt.

Her rise to a directorship at General Dynamics helped her earn one of Sweet Briar’s highest honors – the Alumnae Association’s Distinguished Alumna Award. As the name suggests, it is given to those who distinguish both themselves and the College through professional or volunteer achievements.

In her introductory remarks and later among the 19 attributes – which were not presented in order of importance – Kramer reiterated that leadership means supporting the company position. She acknowledged this isn’t always easy for an independent woman in a male-dominated field.

Nonetheless, while you can object up the organizational chain, “it is unacceptable to editorialize or second guess a company decision once it has been made,” she said. “Your role at work is an extension of the objectives of that company or corporation or institution. You must never forget that you are paid to do what is best to achieve the company’s objectives, not your own.”

On the other hand, constructive conflict that focuses on issues, not people, must be encouraged, she advised. “If you have a yes-man working for you, one of you is redundant.”

As if illustrating principle No. 2 on her list, “Cut to the chase,” Kramer didn’t mince words to explain others. Reject mediocrity and recognize that the company’s success is the measure of your own, she said. If need be, “get rid of those who ‘just don’t get it.’ ” Instead, foster an “environment where the best, the brightest, and the most creative are attracted, retained, and most importantly, unleashed.”

Kramer also observed that true leaders take their work seriously, but not themselves, and they surround themselves with others who do the same. Play as hard as you work and, furthermore, be an interesting person.

“Expanding your personal interests creates a broad perspective that enhances your job effectiveness and your life,” she said. So travel, find hobbies and excel in them, eschew the “grim workaholic” mantle.

When Kramer concluded, SBC President Elisabeth Muhlenfeld, moved to the podium to wind up Convocation. She invited the audience to join another Sweet Briar Founders’ Day custom, a processional on foot to Monument Hill. There, in a solemn observance, participants pay respects at the grave of the school’s creator’s only daughter, Daisy, who died at 16.

Clad in full academic regalia and pink tennis shoes over pantyhose, Muhlenfeld took her place behind the traditional bagpiper to lead the procession nearly a mile uphill to the grave site. The temperature was more than 90 degrees.

“ ‘Twas hot!” Muhlenfeld said later.

Leaders can’t ask others to do what they themselves will not. That axiom is No. 19 on Kramer’s list.

— By Jennifer McManamay, SBC staff writer